


Meeting the Mothers

by BigFootGirl



Series: Onwards [4]
Category: This Way Up (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27954326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigFootGirl/pseuds/BigFootGirl
Summary: Meetings, especially the meet-the-family kind, can hold all sorts of surprises.This can go before, during, or after any of the previous stories in the series.
Relationships: Aine & Etienne (This Way Up), Aine/Richard (This Way Up), Etienne & Richard (This Way Up), Shona/Vish (This Way Up)
Series: Onwards [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694239
Kudos: 9





	1. Margaret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Áine to meet Richard's mother.

The first time Áine meets Richard’s mother, she’s not sure what she’s expecting but it most certainly is NOT the colorfully-dressed woman with pink hair hurrying towards them at Paddington Station on a Sunday afternoon.

“Ricky! My handsome man! Come here!” and suddenly Richard is engulfed in swirls of paisley and rainbow a good foot shorter than him.

“Hi, Mum,” he replies as he attempts to extricate himself while hugging her back.

“’Ello, Grandma,” Etienne greets her as she pulls him down into a hug, too. It’s obvious that this isn’t the first time he has received one of her welcoming hugs.

“And you must be Áine! Come here, my girl!” the diminutive Englishwoman says as she spots Áine before pulling her into, what Áine discovers to be, a bone crushing hug that borders on strangling.

This is Richard’s mam?

* * *

When they return to Richard and Etienne’s house, and are sat around with cups of strong tea, Áine discovers that Richard only sort-of takes after his mother.

“Ricky’s father was always reserved,” she tells Áine before taking a sip.

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. Martin’s parents thought I was a phase he was going through when we first got together. It turns out I was, though it took him some time to realize that.”

“Oh, that’s not right.”

“No, but I did get a wonderful son out of it. My daughter is more like me.”

Áine turned to “Ricky” (she was going to have so much fun with that nickname).

“You have a sister? Why hasn’t this come up?”

“Because she is currently living in a yurt in British Columbia on a tiny island, learning how to become an organic farmer. And I have told you about her, just not all of the specifics,” he responds before taking a gulp of his just-below-boiling hot tea.

“So what are you up to these days, Margaret?” Áine asks as she mentally files away all of the questions she plans on asking Richard later.

“Well, I just retired from being an art therapist at a hospital in Bath. Of course, that was only my most recent job. There have been many others.”

The rest of Áine’s visit seems to fly by as Áine gets to know more about the colorful woman who raised her boyfriend. Before long she discovers that it’s time to get going and let the family have a nice dinner to themselves while she goes to Shona and Vish’s (it’s so weird for her to say that) for her own family meal. Of course she’ll have plenty of time to get to know Margaret during her week-long visit and she has several hours blocked off in the coming week to help Etienne study for his spelling test (it became apparent that father and son were getting too stressed over past tests for Richard to be much of a help).

“Bye, Áine,” Etienne calls from the kitchen as he gets the dishes out for dinner.

“Bye, Etienne! It was lovely to meet you Margaret!” she says to the older woman as Richard helps her with her coat.

“Oh, it was the same for me. You are an absolute delight, my dear. We will see you later this week, I presume?”

“Oh, yes. Etienne’s got a spelling test on Friday and I am the designated tutor for all things English language.”

“Well, then, I look forward to seeing you soon.” Margaret gave Áine a hug and patted Richard on the shoulder before turning to begin dinner preparations.

“So, tomorrow at 5?” Richard asks as they stand close at the front door.

He knows she has questions, but they had a pre-arranged agreement when it came to her interrogations and they would not be alone until Friday night when Margaret and Etienne went out for dinner. Of course she could always interrogate him at any time, but they had previously agreed that morning that she wouldn’t ask her questions until Friday and Áine was going to keep her word.

“Tomorrow at 5. I’ll see you then.”

“Until then,” he replies before they share a quick peck on the lips and then she’s out the door.

Friday could not come soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really think a straight shooter like Richard would have a wildly creative mother.


	2. Eileen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Áine has met Richard's mum, now it's time for him (& Etienne) to meet Áine's mam.

“So that’s your man, is it?” Eileen asked her younger daughter as they watched Richard and Etienne walk up to Shona and Vish’s house.

“Yes, that’s Richard,” Áine replied.

Áine and Richard had been *officially* together for only a few months. When Eileen had announced that she was going to visit to help Shona & Vish with their wedding preparations, she’d made a point of telling Áine that she wanted to meet Richard and, by extension, Etienne.

When Áine mentioned this to Richard, he gave her one of his quiet smiles and simply said “Okay. When?”

Etienne had been a bit more dubious on the matter, but had been swayed with promises of homemade biscuits.

* * *

Eileen had been charmed by Richard’s gift of a book on Irish women athletes and his stories about Áine’s antics when she was still officially tutoring Etienne.

“That does sound like our Áine,” Eileen commented once her laughter had subsided.

“She is a very good tutor,” Etienne told her as he took another of Eileen’s homemade chocolate biscuits.

“Yes, she is. His first spelling test was much better than the teacher had been hoping for. He has done incredibly well under Áine’s tutelage.”

“And he’s doing incredibly well on your chocolate biscuits, Mammy,” Áine put in to deflect from the sudden embarrassment that she was feeling; Etienne dutifully ignored the adults as he chewed his biscuit.

“Etienne,” Eileen started as she turned to the boy, “How would you like it if I taught you how to make my biscuits while I’m still in town? We could try different flavors, if you’d like.”

“Oui! J'aimerais beaucoup ça! I-I mean, yes, I would very much like to learn to make them,” he replied before helping himself to another.

“Wonderful! My mother always said there is a pleasure in learning to make things that you like.”

Áine and Shona looked to one another. “When did Granny say that?” Shona asked.

“When I was trying to learn how to make her potato cream soup. Their father and I were beginning our relationship and I wanted to prove that I could make something that wouldn’t burn besides beans on toast.”

“And your potato cream soup is very tasty, Mam,” Shona said.

“It was one of the only things she could cook when we first got together,” Vish added as he came in with another pot of tea.

“Áine still can’t make it,” Shona added in the way siblings try to one up each other.

“So, I can still make Mammy’s coq au vin. You liked it, right Etienne?” Áine responded.

“Yes, it was very good,” Etienne replied dutifully as he crammed another biscuit into his mouth before drinking some fresh tea.

“I will admit to being very surprised you could make it when you suggested it for dinner,” Richard told Áine.

“Well, a girl’s got to have some surprises, Richard,” Áine said before smirking at him.

He smiled at her smirk and leaned over to kiss her. Since starting the romantic side of their relationship, he had become much better at displaying affection in front of others. Etienne made a face at the adults.

Eileen smiled at the two younger adults. One of her biggest worries had been that her girls find partners who could keep up with them. Shona had found it easily in Vish when they first met at a financial conference and he proved to be adept at navigating her quick Irish temper. Áine and Richard’s relationship, though, was much more subtle to those unfamiliar with them and took a moment to become obvious, though it should have been obvious when you watched them look at each other; there was not a single moment when they were together that they radiated a contentment that would make the most happy person jealous.

The day wore on, they ate supper and talked about life. Shona and Vish managed to get Etienne to promise to watch over Bubs during the wedding & photo-taking as they would be the only young people in the wedding party. He’s huffed, as only a youth could, and agreed to watch over the little girl so that she wouldn’t get her dress messy before pictures had been taken, failing to mention that he loved hanging out with Vish’s niece and would enjoy her company far over that of the adults’ during the wedding.

* * *

At the end of Eileen’s visit, she was happy to have seen her girls and gotten to know Richard and Etienne a bit. Etienne had shown her a thing or two when they’d made more biscuits (cinnamon and raisin), mentioning that he and his mother had made biscuits together once a month.

As Eileen walked to her gate at the airport, she knew that her girls had found personal happiness, even if they hadn’t realized it yet. To her, personal happiness was internal, and not always obvious, but little things could always make things better.


End file.
